


New Leaf

by not_the_marimba



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: Animal Crossing - Freeform, Gen, M/M, Video & Computer Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-29 00:02:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12618568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/not_the_marimba/pseuds/not_the_marimba
Summary: "I kind of thought Jared would enjoy playing Animal Crossing": the fic





	New Leaf

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to joycecarolnotes for encouraging me, reading, and providing feedback.

It starts on a Tuesday around 11 am, when Gilfoyle and Dinesh are playing some game (Jared can’t ever keep track of which is which) as always.

 

“Fucking--why’d you do that! Ugh!” Dinesh throws his controller down in contempt. 

 

“Go play Animal Crossing if this is too much for you,” Gilfoyle taunts as Dinesh heads to the kitchen. 

 

“Richard?” Jared leans over toward him at the table. 

 

Richard decides it’s as good a time as any to take a break from coding. “Yeah, what’s up?”

 

“What’s Animal Crossing?”

 

“Oh, uh. It’s a video game. Why?”

 

“I think Gilfoyle just used it as an insult.”

 

“It’s just like… I think it’s a game where you just like. Wander around and talk to people. You can’t really win or lose and there’s no real skill associated with it.” Richard cracks his neck and gets up to get another energy drink, leaving Jared alone. 

 

Nobody sees Jared quietly get on Amazon later and order a 3DS and a copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf. 

 

***

 

It takes even longer for anyone to notice that Jared is playing it. “3DS, huh?” Richard asks one night as they turn in, tucking his head under Jared’s shoulder and flinging an arm across his waist, shifting under the blankets to get comfortable. 

 

“I always wanted a console or something when I was a kid and I realized there was nothing stopping me from getting something now,” Jared replies, finishing a conversation with one of his villagers and agreeing to catch a dragonfly for her, even though he feels like he never sees dragonflies and is still not great at catching bugs. “One of my foster brothers when I was 8 had a Gameboy but I was never allowed to play it and he would get annoyed if I tried to watch.”

 

“Didn’t you ever play Nintendo or something at someone’s house?” Richard turns onto his side, pushing his back against Jared’s side and shutting his eyes. 

 

“Nope. I wasn’t allowed to go over to friends’ houses very often,” Jared says. He’s tired, but he just realized there’s fruit left to be harvested, and tropical fruit at that, so he really should take care of that before bed, and see if he can find that dragonfly for Mathilda. 

 

Richard flops back over toward him. “I’m sorry.”

 

“It’s okay.” He picks up the fruit and, realizing he can worry about selling it tomorrow, saves the game and turns off the 3DS then the light. “Goodnight, babe.”

 

“Night.”

 

***

 

“Hey, Jared? Did you look at those forms I sent you?”

 

Jared looks up and registers that it’s nearly noon.  _ Dangit _ , he thinks. He’d meant to just make sure he got in early on the bug-catching competition, but it’s been over an hour since he opened the 3DS. “I’m sorry, Dinesh. One second.” He flips it shut and frantically gets on his laptop. 

 

“What were you playing? I didn’t even know you had a 3DS.” 

 

“It’s, uh.” Jared isn’t sure he wants to expose himself to ridicule like this, but caves anyway. “Animal Crossing.” 

 

Dinesh folds his arms and regards Jared. “I mean, that makes sense for you, I guess.” He scratches his head, and gets up to head toward the kitchen. “Let me know when you’ve looked at the forms, yeah?” 

 

“Sure.” Jared opens the forms but also opens the 3DS back up. He’s got to find a bug worth more than 90 points. 


End file.
